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USA Suffers Upset Loss to Lithuania; Germany, Australia Roll – NBA.com
Banchero, USA Stunned by Lithuania
Usually, the Americans, with their collection of high-end NBA talent, wear down opponents as games go on even if they fall behind early – just like they did in their 2023 FIBA World Cup opening-round victories over New Zealand and Greece, and then again in their first second-round contest against Montenegro.
But that’s not always the case in today’s international basketball landscape, especially if the U.S.’s squad isn’t at the level of a 1992 Dream Team, 2008 Redeem Team, or any of their other groupings that won gold in the various international competitions over the last 30-plus years.
On Sunday, we saw a more experienced and more cohesive Lithuanian team stay locked in against the Americans, even after the U.S. stormed back from a 21-point deficit, and ultimately prevail 110-104 in Manila, Philippines.
New Orleans Pelicans center Jonas Valanciunas scored 12 points for Lithuania, which made its first nine 3-pointers and went 14-of-25 for the game from beyond the arc. Vaidas Kariniauskas added 15 points, Mindaugas Kuzminskas, who played with the New York Knicks earlier in his professional career, had 14 points and former Orlando Magic player Ignas Brazdeikis finished with 11 points.
Anthony Edwards exploded for 35 points for the U.S., while Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges each scored 14 points. Bridges missed a 3-pointer with several seconds remaining that would have pulled the Americans within one. Paolo Banchero finished with six points, two rebounds and two assists.
With the loss, the U.S. will play Italy on Tuesday in the quarterfinals, which is quite interesting considering Banchero, who is of Italian descent and holds Italian citizenship, contemplated playing for the Italians before deciding to represent the red, white, and blue.
Four years ago in this same tournament, the U.S. lost back-to-back games against France and Serbia in the final round and had to settle for a seventh-place finish.
Perhaps Sunday’s loss to Lithuania was the wakeup call the Americans needed to avoid a similar outcome. If the U.S. are able to knock off the Italians in the quarterfinals and the Germans win their quarterfinal matchup, they would play in the semifinals. Lithuania, which has yet to lose in this tournament, will play Serbia in the quarterfinals.
Moe Wagner, Germany Stay Unbeaten With Win Over Slovenia
The play of the Germans at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, even without star forward Franz Wagner, has arguably been the tournament’s best, and most compelling, story thus far.
They once again proved that they are legitimate gold-medal contenders by defeating Slovenia 71-58 in Okinawa, Japan on Sunday to remain undefeated.
Following a slow start, Germany dominated the second and third quarters. Up just three with seven-plus minutes left in the third, the Germans used a 21-5 run to blow the game open.
Dennis Schroder, who signed with the Toronto Raptors this summer, led the Germans with 18 points, while Indiana Pacer Daniel Theis scored 14 points and Isaac Bonga, who played for the L.A. Lakers, Washington Wizards, and Raptors earlier in his professional career, had 12 points. Orlando Magic big man Moe Wagner played 11 minutes and finished with three points and six rebounds.
Franz missed his fourth straight contest after slightly spraining his left ankle in Germany’s first game of the tournament against Japan.
Four-time NBA All-Star Luka Doncic led Slovenia with 23 points, while Klemen Prepelic scored 12 points.
Germany and Lithuania are the only two remaining unbeaten teams. If Germany, which plays Latvia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, and the U.S. both win in the next round, they will meet in the semifinals.
Ingles, Australia Beat Bitadze, Georgia in Their Final 2023 FIBA World Cup Games
Only three NBA players born outside the United States since the start of the 2014-15 season have made over 1,100 3-pointers.
One of them is Joe Ingles, who has knocked down 1,154 triples in 636 NBA regular season games. The others are Bojan Bogdanovic, who’s from Croatia, and fellow Australian Patty Mills.
By adding Ingles in free agency this summer, the Orlando Magic now have a proven long-range shooter to help space the floor, which is precisely what the 6-foot-9, 235-pounder did for the Australian national team during their 2023 FIBA World Cup victories.
That includes Sunday’s 100-84 win over Georgia in their final game of the tournament, in which Ingles buried three 3-pointers as part of his 10-point, five-rebound, and six-assist performance. Mills led Australia with 19 points, while Dante Exum scored 18 and Duop Reath had 16. Ingles’ Magic teammate Goga Bitadze paced the Georgians with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field to go along with five rebounds.
The 35-year-old Ingles spent a lot of time playing the four off the bench in this competition, largely because of the absence of fellow NBAer Jock Landale, who hurt his ankle during one of Australia’s exhibition games last month. While that didn’t seem to be a problem for him offensively, as his shooting and playmaking creates challenges for more traditional opposing fours, it was an adjustment defensively.
“I hadn’t played the four up until Jock kind of went down, so that was a little bit of new,” he said. “With what we have with (Josh) Giddey and these guys to push the ball, obviously for me I feel like spacing the floor is something I can do, obviously my creating is something I will continue to do, and then defensively the four is probably the newest thing with either switching or hedging or whatever coverage we are in.”
Although they didn’t advance to the final round in this tournament, Australia did secure a spot in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris by finishing as the top team from the Oceania region.
Georgia, which went 2-3 in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, will compete in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament next July with hopes of joining Australia in Paris.
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